Renewable Energy Sources and Low Carbon Techniques - Term Paper Example

Renewable Energy Sources and Low Carbon Techniques Introduction Heat accounts for 47 per cent of all UK CO2 green house gases and overall 60 per cent of domestic energy consumption bills (Simpson, 2010). And it is recommended that the UK should have 10 million homes with solar panels by the end of 2020 (Harvey, 2014). Energy and energy resources have become a crucial issue for the United Kingdom. Both green electricity and green heat are two equally effective resources which are used for generating energy and electricity for satisfying ever growing needs of energy consumption. One school of thought is of the opinion that green electricity is considered to be more effective and environment friendly besides producing low carbon emission and green house gases whereas the proponents of green heat are of the view that the green heat using different methods and types of technology is also equally vital. However, it is difficult to say that which method is perfect as there are certain other perspectives, such as cost of installation, energy efficiency, energy consumption level, earnings and savings by selling electricity to the energy providing firms, are those certain factors that have provided opportunity for debating and highlighting that which energy method is better in terms of energy consumption, savings and earnings, cost of installation and energy efficiency as well. In the following parts of this paper, first a brief introduction relating to the green electricity and green heat has been provided. It is following by technical aspects relating to some of the important technologies being used in both. Before the conclusion part, cost of different technologies and challenges relating to measuring and rewarding heating technologies has been comparatively analysed. Figure 01: Investment dynamics in electricity generation from micro-perspective Source: (Loonen et al., 2013). This figure highlights an overview concerning electricity generation by depicting all indicators and users involved in the entire process starting from generation to consumption. It is electricity demand that starts the whole subsequent process in which installed capacity, profitability and electricity price are those factors that subsequent evolve and adjust along with certain variables representing different factors in the whole process. Green electricity To introduce energy efficiency along with energy saving, the UK government has introduced Feed-In Tariffs (FITs) scheme aimed to encourage electricity generation especially from renewable energy technologies, such as wind turbine, hydroelectricity, solar panel, micro combined and power (CHP) and anaerobic digesters (Energy Saving Trust, 2014) and this scheme was introduced and implemented on 1 April 2010 (Gov.uk, 2014). Fundamentally, FITs has been named as Clean Energy Cash-back, which is designed to generating own ‘green electricity’ (Fitariffs.co.uk, n.d.). more clearly, this incentive has three types of payments including payment for generating electricity for personal consumption, bonus payment for exporting electricity to the local or national grid and decrease in standard electricity bill (Fitariffs.co.uk, n.d.). Solar panels More than 500,000 British homes have put in place solar panels (Winch, 2014). For example, if a household invests £7,500 for installing a 4kWp installation of solar photovoltaic panels for electricity generation, they could be entitled to receive a financial income of £770 annually (Winch, 2014). Furthermore, the following summary of solar PV tariffs highlights the different applicable rates for generating electricity through using the solar panel. Figure 02: Summary of solar PV tariffs Source: (Energy Saving Trust, 2014). Technically speaking, solar panels uses the sun’s rays for generating electricity; and there are two types including photovoltaic and solar thermal in which former is directly used to convert sun rays into electricity whereas the latter is used to heat water with the support of sun rays (EDF Energy, 2015; Castellano, 2010). More specifically, a PV panel consists of semiconducting material, which is made of silicon, is placed between two contracts and sun rays are absorbed by the panel (EDF Energy, 2015). Concerning carbon intensity of PV solar panels, it has been observed that the solar panels are not directly responsible for emitting green house gases; however, emissions are related to the entire life cycle of the solar panel (EDF Energy, 2015a). Similarly, recent studies highlight that the amount of green house gases from the different parts of solar panels is diminishing because of the advancements in the production techniques (Houses of Parliament, 2011). Green heat Figure 03: Heat energy consumption in the UK in 2010 Source: (Houses of Parliament, 2013). Heat energy is mostly consumed by the residential sector as reflected by the above figure. The dark bar in the space heating clearly demonstrates that the residential sector has the highest heat consumption which is mainly caused by the fact that the UK experiences more cold than hot season. Subsequently, water heating is another important residential use of heat energy during the mentioned period. Figure 04: Heat pump markets in different countries Source: (Houses of Parliament, 2013). This graph highlights both current and projected trend for heat pumps across Europe. The historical data reveals that the United Kingdom has been experiencing a steady rise of heat pumps over the last 8 to 9 years, reflecting confidence over the use of heat pumps for satisfying the energy needs. Similarly, the expected trend, including in the current year, the demand for heat pumps is on the rise. Renewable-Heat-Incentives Figure 05: Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSPHs) Source: (Houses of Parliament, 2013). The use of GSPHs is on the rise as an alternative to green electricity. GSPHs obtain heat by allowing a cool liquid through a pipeline system placed under the ground; under this system, heat particularly from solar radiation is deposited under the ground around 10 to 15 degree centigrade throughout year which is assimilated by the cool liquid as it moves around the piping (Houses of Parliament, 2014). The initial cost of installation and subsequent maintenance of heat pump is considerably higher. For example, for installing heat pump encompassing expenditure on pipe work, radiator changes and water storage tanks collectively cost around £9,000 to 17,000 for GSHP and £6,000 to 10,000 for ASHP (Houses of Parliament, 2014). Figure 06: Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHPs) Source: (Houses of Parliament, 2013). ASPH works similar to air conditioner but it generates heating instead of cooling; in this device, a fan attracts air into the unit in which heat is assimilated and processed to a higher temperature and the processed air is subsequently transferred to room (Houses of Parliament, 2013). Challenges The objective behind the policy of green heating through subsiding heat renewable technologies, such as heat pumps, still faces some serious challenges. For example, Vaughan (2010) has highlighted the reported drafted and developed by the Energy Saving Trust, highlighting that around 80 per cent of the installed heat pumps are under-performing. The report further indicates that around 87 per cent of installed devices were unable to meet the threshold of 3 besides 80 per cent of the existing pumps have even miserably failed to secure 2.6 level which is the European Union’s level marked under the EU Renewable Energy Directive (Vaughan, 2010). Conclusion Green electricity should be prioritised over the use of green heat and this can be established through making investment comparison, return comparison, environmental comparison and performance analysis. For example, a solar panel installation requires £7,500 for a 4kWp solar photovoltaic panel whereas for installing a heat pump £9,000 to 17,000 for GSPH and £6,000 to 10,000 for ASHP. In other words, installation of solar panel costs less than the installation of a GSPH. Additionally, a total of £770 can be earned by installing a solar panel whereas no financial income has been provided as the installation of GSPH has various supporting devices. Environmentally, it has been established that the solar panels do not directly emit the green house gases whereas the study indicates that the use of incentives for installing heat pumps has failed to obtain its policy objectives as the research signifies that around 80 per cent of the installed heat pumps have failed to obtain the EU’s performance benchmark. References Castellano, R. (2010). Solar Panel Processing. Philadelphia: Old City Publishing. EDF Energy, (2015). How electricity is generated through solar power. Available: http://www.edfenergy.com/energyfuture/solar-generation Accessed: 18 January, 2015. EDF Energy, (2015a). Low-carbon, not zero-carbon. Available: http://www.edfenergy.com/energyfuture/energy-gap-climate-change/solar-and-the-energy-gap-climate-change Accessed: 18 January, 2015. Energy Saving Trust, (2014). Feed-in Tariff Scheme. Available: http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/domestic/content/feed-tariff-scheme Accessed: 17 January, 2015. Fitariffs.co.uk, (n.d.). Feed-in Tariffs: The information site for the new guaranteed payments for renewable electricity in the UK. Available: http://www.fitariffs.co.uk/FITs/ Accessed: 17 January, 2015 Gov.uk, (2015). Increasing the use of low-carbon technologies. Available: https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/increasing-the-use-of-low-carbon-technologies/supporting-pages/feed-in-tariffs-scheme , Accessed: 18 January, 2015. Harvey, F. (2014). UK should have 10 million homes with solar panels by 2020, experts say. The Guardian. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/29/uk-10-million-homes-solar-panels-2020 Accessed: 18 January, 2015 Houses of Parliament, (2011). Carbon Footprint of Electricity Generation. Available: http://www.parliament.uk/documents/post/postpn_383-carbon-footprint-electricity-generation.pdf Accessed: 18 January, 2015 Houses of Parliament, (2013). Residential Heat Pumps. Available: www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/POST-PN-426.pdf Accessed: 17 January, 2015 Loonen, E., Pruyt, E., & Hamarat, C. (2013). Exploring carbon futures in the EU power sector. Available: http://www.systemdynamics.org/conferences/2013/proceed/papers/P1184.pdf Accessed: 18 January, 2015 Simpson, A. (2010). Renewable Heat Incentive. Friends of Earth. Available: http://www.foe.co.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/renewable_heat_incentive.pdf . Accessed: 18 January, 2015. Vaughan, A. (2010). UK ‘heat pumps’ fail as green devices, finds study. The Guardian. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/sep/08/heat-pumps-green-heating Accessed: 18 January, 2015 Winch, J. (2014). Can solar panels really beat your pension? The Telegraph. Available: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/household-bills/10620322/Can-solar-panels-really-beat-your-pension.html Accessed: 18 January, 2015 Read More